Taiko Class Drum

I am so excited about this drum that I had Sandy make a video of me playing it. Then I put it on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYUq7eC_xbE Enjoy!

Taiko Class Drum

While visiting Paralounge, my friend Clint Bach, became entranced by the taiko drums he met there. Upon returning home he built a drum that is very much like a taiko. We call it "taiko class". It is 26" X 31". It tapers and only has one head. He built the shell then the two of us put the rings, ropes and head on. It took us about 6 hours just to do that. This drum sounds great! I can't get anything done today because all I want to do is play it. My neighbor who lives 1/2 a mile away (houses, hills and trees in between) could hear it at his house.

Container Fall 2008

The container arrived from Ivory Coast early Monday morning. It was loaded with Djembes, shells, Djuns sets and a lot goatskins (with and without hair). The Djembes are in excellent condition and have nice carvings on the base. There are 20 sets of goodlooking Djuns with bells.

Tank Drum

Ever since we met a Hang drum last winter we've been intrigued with the beautiful, haunting sounds they make. So Shorty asked Clint Bach to make something similar. After doing some research, he found the tank or hank drums and came up with his own design. We sell them as special orders. Call us if you are interested in one.

Paralounge

Paralounge was wonderful! We had a blast and sales were good too. Clint and Sharee Tipton did an outstanding job of accommodating over 500 guests. The River Rendezvous on the Suawnee River was a perfect setting for this drumming community to meet. The shows and workshops were great as was the drumming and dancing. Arthur Hull brought us all much fun. We took our friend, Clint Bach (he makes the tank drums and pine ashikos for DD&S), with us and our son, Sam, visited too. Clint, Sharee and Shorty have something in common too..they all cut their hair. Go check out the website www.paralounge.net.

Container Update

The container is in Charleston, S.C. waiting to be cleared by customs!

Container Update!

Good news! The container is almost here! It should arrive in Charleston, S.C. on Oct 20th! Then of course it has to clear US Customs and be transferred to a truck. So we are expecting it mid week! We will post its arrival on the website as soon as it is in.

New Shipment from Ghana - Conga Shells!

New Shipment from Ghana! We just received a shipment of 12 conga shells, 30 dunun bells and 15 large gankogue bells, also known as metal agogos.
The congas are large and solid. I took a picture of Sandy, who is 5"6", beside the shells to give you an idea of how big they are. They weigh between 22 - 30 lbs. The larger ones measure approximately 12½" x 29". The smaller ones are approximately 11" x 27½". These shells cost $180.00 plus 3 rings $15.00, box, and shipping. These are not in the shopping cart area so call or email if you are interested. Bells are regular stock and are in the shopping area.

Freezing Skins

If you have soaked a skin or hide and do not have time to put it on the drum on the same day try freezing it. If a skin is left soaking too long it will deteriorate. You can soak the skin and put it in a plastic bag (freezer zipper bag) and then in the freezer until you are ready to use it. When ready to use it just re-soak it until it is defrosted. Voila soft skin ready for heading.

Wholesale, Bulk Rates, Teacher Discounts

DD&S has reduced prices for some bulk and wholesale orders. You can purchase a 1,000’ spool of rope for $100 and 10 or more Ivory Coast goatskins at a discount. If you are a retailer or drum teacher please let us know and contact us about wholesale pricing.

Going to Paralounge

Paralounge: We asked Clint Tipton of Paralounge a few questions about the upcoming event. Read his answers the newsletter or on the webiste (www.goatskins.com/clint.htm). We will be there with our drums and merchandise. If you want to rehead your drum bring it, I always run a continuous heading and tuning workshop at our vending booth.

What’s New with Shorty ?I want to keep all of our customers informed about our goods. Sandy and I have decided to send the newsletter out quarterly. We’ll send out flyers with specials and new information in-between. All of our regular items (Djembes, goat skins, rope and cow hides) can be found on the website. We also have some things that are not on the website. Please call us if you see something in a flyer or newsletter that you like but cannot find on the website. We take some special orders. It does take a little longer to get these. If you have a special request fr something from the Ivory Coast, now is the time to call for the next shipment.  

New Items this Fall

New Things: Taller congas and djun bells are coming from Ghana soon.

A shipment of cowhides from Guinea just arrived. Their prices range from $90 to $120. These prices are based on size.

How to stabilize a crack in a drum shell

To fix a crack in a wooden drum shell, you will need a drill with a 1/4" bit, white or wood glue, sand paper, chisel, hammer, and a 1/4" oak dowel. You will start from the rim or the bottom of the drum (depending on where the crack is).  Drill a hole at an angle and across the crack. Put the glue in the hole and on the dowel. Drive the dowel into the hole, cut the dowel off level with the drum, and smooth it with sandpaper or a chisel. You can color it with some stain or wood putty. The cracks usually do not show and do not affect the quality of the drum’s sound.  

New Stuff

The container from Africa arrived last week. We now have some new sizes of djembes. There's a medium size that is 11.5" X 21" and a small size that is 9" X 18" (both of these vary of course). There are new prices too. Keep watching the website for information about this. Our June newsletter is ready to be launched. We send it out by email to all eamil addresses that we have. If you want a copy sign up for it on the website or send me your email.

What’s New with Shorty

Wow, what a spring this has been! The container was delayed for the whole month of May! Finally it came to port and passed customs (the x-ray machine was broken). It's here full of Ivory Coast Djembes (full size and new sizes 11.5" X 21" and 9"(or 10") X 18"), goatskins, cow hides. drum bags, drum shells, a few djuns, and some special orders(now is the time to make special orders for the next container). Sadly some of our prices are going up because of the increase in wholesale costs. The American dollar is weak in the world economy, and the carvers must charge more in order to make a decent living. I've also just received items from Senegal. Watch the website for these new things. The Ghana Djembes are very popular. Currently the small ones are in stock. These are very light and easy to carry from place to place. We will be getting a new shipment of the larger ones again soon. My friend Clint Bach has made some very nice Ashikos that you can find on www.goatskins.com. Our redesigned drum straps are now 2" wide. Sandy has made some drum strap pads to help ease the load on shoulders. She also can make fabric drum straps (both are special order). I am having a great time making bells out of metal pipes. In May I visited Drum Camp in Little Switzerland, N.C. The drumming was great. Now we've just returned from the Bark Bash in Cape May, New Jersey. It was good to be with old friends. There I had so many drums to fix and so little time. I did find time to take Sandy for a walk on the beach though. Tennessee is so green now. Our small garden is growing fast. Sandy and I are so happy that we made this move that we renewed our vows to each other this June. Life is Good!

May and June

Drum Camp in Little Switzerland was really cool! There were 5 African drum teachers who were teaching drum, dance and balaphone teachers. I learned a lot about balaphones from Abul Sila. It inspired me to build one soon. The drumming was great.

Bark Bash was as usual great! I got there later than usual because the container came into TN a week late. However, I was still among the first arrivals. Barky has remodeled his house and it looks really, really good. I worked on more drums than ever this time. I kept thinking "so many drums, so little time." There were several people working on their own drums too. This was the first year that Sandy went with me and we drove. We were able to bring lots of drums with us. I even put her to work pulling diamonds and of course loading and unloading drums and things. It was so good to see my old freinds. Barky went out of his way to make us comfortable and served us all good food. As usual we performed at the Strawberry Festival. I ended the weeknd with my customary trip to Atlantic City and the Taj.

June 2008 Tip - Wax the Rim

It’s a good idea to put a coat of wax on the rim of the drum before you apply a new head. The wax will protect the wood from the moisture left on the skin from soaking and will prevent the skins from sticking to the wood.

Another Drum Tip-Rim of the shell

I get a lot of questions about the rim of the drum, or bearing edge. This is an important part of the drum shell. Done incorrectly it can cause a vibration that could drive you crazy trying to figure out what it is, at least it drove me crazy the first time it happened to me. The vibration noise is due to a flat spot on the rim of the shell. What is happening is that the skin left bearing edge but then retouches again and starts to make the noise or vibration. There really is only on way to fix it, take the head off and fix the flat spot. When I first started out I was told the rim should look like a side view of your thumb. The finger nail side would be the inside of the drum and the skin (or palm side) would be the outside. That analogy really does work.

One more tip on the rim is if you want the plane of the top of the drum to be flat I have found the best way to get it that way is to glue sandpaper to a flat surface and rub the drum over that surface. It takes a little elbow grease but it is worth it in the long run. I actually use a belt sander to shape the rim but the first thing I will do is get the rim a little pointed so when I do flatten the top of the drum It sands easier. The more I flatten it, and wider the flat spot becomes, the harder it is to sand. I will reshape the rim again and make the top where I have been sanding pointed again until I finally get it flat. I use a piece of glass to gauge the flatness. You actually can tell when it is flat by looking at where you have been sanding and if the sandpaper touches all surfaces, then it has to be flat. If you do not have access to a flat surface and sandpaper, there is the old concrete driveway. I have turned a drum upside and rubbed it back and forth on my driveway, it works but you need to make sure the concrete is flat by using a straight edge in the place where you will rubbing the drum.

When finally finished sanding the surface, you have to get that rounded side view of your thumb look again on the rim. If you had to take the head off to fix the rim there is no need to re-soak the head, you can put the head back on dry, tighten the verticals, put your diamonds in and start playing.

Rope

Just thought I would continue the blog by adding another tip. I get asked a lot how much rope does it take to string a djembe. A lot of factors are involved. How many loops (that determines the verticals). How long the verticals are. I have my own formular, others have similar, they all work. I count the number of loops, each loop repersents two verticals. I measure the length of the vertical and add two inches to that length. I multiply the total length (the length plus the two inches) times double the number of loops. This will give you a total number of inches. Divide that number by 12 and it will give you the number of feet. The two inches that were added will give you the extra rope needed for the making the diamonds. It will also allow you to pre-lace the drum before putting the head on.

Drum Heading Tips

To know the how long you need to cut the rope for the two loops rings you measure the circumfrence of the rings. I wrap the rope around the outside of the top ring. I use 4.25 times the cirumfrence of the top ring and 5.5 times the cirumfrence for the bottom ring. This will give you extra rope on the rings using a two finger spacing for the loops. It is better to have one foot or more extra then to be half an inch short. When i say two finger spacing, that is for the top ring only, the bottom loops will be closer then two fingers. I always do the top ring first. Count the number of loops. As I tie the loops on the bottom ring I pay attention to how many loops I have as I go around the ring counting the number as I reach each quarter of the ring. If the top ring has 24 loops I should have 6 loops after reaching the first quarter of the ring and 12 loops at the halfway point. You can adjust your spacing accordingly.

On the road

Not sure how this blog thing works, but right now i am on the way home from arlington va. i am currently on 321 north in nc on our way to 40west towards asheville. i have quite a lot of great customers and friends in ashville and wished i have the time to stop and see some. that will be another trip. as a reminder if anybody is in my neck of the woods feel free to call and stop by. i have am willing and ready to do a mini workshop and put a head on a drum. yall take care. i will try my best to keep up with this blog. hope i start getting some replies soon

First Post

Hello all, I am now entering the world of blogging. I guess I am suppose to say something smart and witty, well that is not happening today. I am currently on my way back from Arlington Va after burying my daughters husban in Arlington National Cemetary. I plan on keeping up with this blog. I feel like this will be a great place to ask questions, give out tips on heading drums, keep up with current drumming events and whatever else you are suppose to do in blogs.

I am going to be home Sunday afternoon. I have been having a tough time getting orders out for the last 3 weeks due to my son inlaws illness and death. I am expecting to get back to some sort of normacly starting Monday, Jan 7. On wed Jan 9 Sandy (my wife) is leaving for New Zealand for 3 weeks. Hopefully this will not slow me down to much, I expect to get back to my normal shipping of same day to next day for getting goods out.